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The Global Systems Review Issue 15 April 2010
The Global Systems Review is a periodic e-newsletter that explores critical world issues through the lens of whole systems thinking.
This issue celebrates the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
"The earth is alive and we are all relatives in the dance of life upon her sacred dance ground. Humans are in an interdependent relationship with the environment; our thoughts and actions can harm or cure. The deeper issues of planetary suffering may be transformed through understanding that we are one within this living biosphere and that all beings are our relatives."
— Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo is the 27th generation lineage holder of the ancestral Ywahoo lineage in the Tsalagi/ Cherokee tradition. She is the Chief of the Green Mountain Band of the Aniyunwiwa (Cherokee Tribe). Learn more at www.beautywayproductions.com and www.sunray.org
In this Issue:
Re-Claiming Our Place in the Web of Life
By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.
The earth is alive. Humanity is an integral part of this living planet, not apart from it. Every being – those who walk on two legs or four, those who fly or creep or swim, burrow or crawl – is our relative. The air, the waters, the sun and moon, the soil, the winds – these too are part of the web of life. We are all interconnected and interdependent.
Indigenous peoples all over the world have known these core facts since forever. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, some of us forgot, and came to believe that the natural world was an inert ‘thing,’ separate from us, that could be manipulated and even ravaged for our convenience and gain.
This way of thinking has imperiled our environment nearly to the point of self-destruction. As we are awakening to the damage we have done to ourselves and to the whole biosphere, we are learning new ways to be in harmony and mutual respect with our environment. We are starting to take responsibility for both healing the harm we have done and finding innovative ways to insure a sustainable planet for future generations. We are re-claiming our original instructions – that we are a part of nature, not apart from it.
We celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in this issue of the Global Systems Review by highlighting three excellent examples of these earth-friendly innovations, all based on a systems perspective: Bioneers, Permaculture, and Ecoliteracy.
Native peoples think of the effect of their decisions seven generations into the future. Now is the time for all of us to do the same.
For more information on Earth Day Click Here.
Bioneers: A Declaration of Interdependence
By Kenny Ausubel
As the naturalist John Muir once wrote, “In nature everything is hitched to everything else.” In other words, it’s all connected. It would be wise to learn the ground rules and how to play by them. Nature bats last, as the saying goes. But even more importantly, it’s her playing field.
Overcoming the illusion that people are separate from nature is perhaps the single fatal systems error on which our civilization will stand or fall. But what Muir and his generation of European-American environmentalists failed to grasp is that people are also part of nature. We didn’t invent nature. Nature invented us. Human systems and natural systems are one system.
When we founded the Bioneers conference in 1990, we reframed “environment” on the premise that human and natural systems are one system, and we can solve the environmental crisis only by bringing all the parts together. It’s a puzzle that takes all the pieces to crack the code, both people and “issues.” You have to solve the whole problem all at once. It’s a Declaration of Interdependence.
For the past two decades, we’ve assembled a network of networks of leading social and scientific innovators with both practical and visionary solutions for restoring people and planet. The fields span virtually all fields of human endeavor, and the people come from many diverse cultures and walks of life. Since the outset, we’ve placed special emphasis on biomimicry, the game-changing emerging science founded in “innovation inspired by nature” that seeks to emulate nature’s operating instructions, as well as on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), the vast body of empirical knowledge held by First Peoples and traditional cultures, a rich collective heritage sometimes called “The Original Instructions.”
Over time, Bioneers has focused on rewiring key disconnections or systems errors. Ecological Medicine, for instance, exemplifies the recognition that human health is dependent on environmental health. Restoring public health means repairing the health of our ecosystems, as well as on detoxifying medical practice itself, a major health and environmental hazard. We’ve also highlighted the convergence of the environmental and social justice movements. Poverty and inequity are primary sources of environmental destruction, and a system that continues to concentrate wealth and distribute poverty is doomed to destroy the basic life-support systems on which we all depend.
A few years ago we launched a program called Dreaming New Mexico in our home base to take a systems approach to restoration at the state level. While the federal government’s inertia and inaction have largely failed to address our major environmental challenges, the most progressive environmental change today has been occurring at the local and regional levels where communities are rolling up their sleeves to actually solve problems. It’s happening primarily at the community, city, county and state levels, often led by mayors and governors, usually with vibrant involvement by civil society.
As Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” All ecology is also local – actually it’s “globalocal” - but it’s very particular to place and local culture. Our politics will increasingly be defined by watersheds, foodsheds and energysheds. From a systems perspective, a more decentralized system is far more resilient. Redesigning our society to be more locally self-reliant also can create much more prosperous local economies and jobs. At the heart of Dreaming New Mexico is the creation of a restoration economy that embraces the rights of people and nature and builds a reliable prosperity.
The premise: Dreaming the future can create the future. What would success look like? What are our dreams? These transformative questions have propelled a process of envisioning “do-able” dreams and mapping how to realize them. The project also provides a template and tools for other place-based initiatives worldwide. www.dreamingnewmexico.org
We undertook rigorous strategic research on the state of the state, first on energy and then on a more local foodshed. We created a “shadow think tank” of key experts across disciplines, sectors and cultures, and sought to discover people’s dreams. We created “future maps” (a two-sided wall map and accompanying in-depth pamphlet). The year is 2020 and we’ve done everything right. What would the Age of Renewables look like? What would the Age of Local Foodsheds look like?
These tools serve as points of departure for action-oriented convenings of cross-sectoral networks around a shared vision of restoration, and as educational and organizing tools.
With local partners, we’ve convened two statewide gatherings respectively on energy and the food system. Both have led to important results that are affecting state policy and shifting the thinking of government, civil society, educational institutions and business to see the state as a system and see themselves as a system. As Brendan Miller, the Green Economy Manager appointed by Governor Bill Richardson in the Economic Development Department, stated, “Dreaming New Mexico is a valuable asset for the State, and it is really what started the conversation on many of these issues.”
The jurors for the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award, who chose Dreaming New Mexico as first runner-up (MIT Media Lab placed first), said this:
“Dreaming New Mexico brings together the tools of grassroots organizing and community leadership with scientific know-how and political savvy to both create a vision for the future and lay the groundwork for getting there. This is a fundamental leverage point for creating systemic change. The core concept of this work is the power of transformative visioning, of imagining the world we want to see and then putting the steps in place to get us there, a process which Bucky often called designing the ‘preferred state.’
“The solution tackles an issue often overlooked by problem-solvers – the political dynamic and the political barriers that often slow or stop large-scale change. In many ways, DNM is a process for creating a new political landscape that ties together Earth stewardship values with core community needs – from fresh water, to clean energy, to abundant and locally grown food.
“Imagining a better future is the first step towards creating that future, and DNM provides a rich community process that can be replicated across the globe to give voice to the grassroots and help us build strong local economies and sustainable, resilient communities.”
Successful place-based restoration initiatives using systems thinking are beginning to crystallize and show success around the country. Important examples include Re-Amp, which is on track to reduce GHG emissions by 80% in eight Midwestern states by 2030, and TreePeople’s remarkable achievement of creating a Department of the Watershed in Los Angeles, the first-ever coherent human approach to water management in a major city. Another leading initiative is David Orr’s efforts at Oberlin where the college is partnering with the city to go carbon-neutral by 2020.
So yes, it’s all connected. Now we all have to get connected. Networks are nature’s primary form of organization. Together we can learn from our successes and spread the most promising practices. Dreaming the future indeed can create the future, and it’s in our hands.
Kenny Ausubel, Co-CEO & Founder (with Nina Simons) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker. To learn more about Bioneers go to www.bioneers.org
Permaculture: A Regenerative Design System for Community and Ecological Resiliency
By Penny Livingston-Stark
We are living in an era of global transformation. Our cosmology is changing as we come to realize that our survival is dependant on changing our relationship to creation, the natural world and the planet Earth. This transformation is transcending religion, culture, climate and consciousness. Many of us are waking up to realize we have to change the way we create our supply lines and develop the land. We are also awakening to the notion that we need to treat ourselves, each other and all of creation with respect and compassion.
The good news is that the solutions are here. We have, at our fingertips, the technology and knowhow to grow healthy food without chemicals, to design and build energy systems that are clean and renewable, build structures without toxins, and treat each other with respect and compassion. But why aren’t we? Why are we still feeling helpless towards issues such as species extinction, climate change, pollution, overpopulation, addiction, violence, racism, poverty and disconnection when the solutions in many cases are hidden in plain view? I think one answer is that most of us are not aware of what is available to us in the form of systemic solutions. The crux is… We have to change…
Many Hands Make Light Work
This isn’t about one person or a few people doing magnanimous tasks to transform society and culture. This is about millions upon millions of people doing ordinary things while making clear and educated decisions. It’s about humanity becoming literate about their home and their personal role in looking after it. Permaculture is one way of translating that literacy into tangible results.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design science, rooted in the observation of natural systems. It aids us in designing human settlements that have the stability and resiliency of natural ecosystems. It is a non-dogmatic approach to whole systems thinking. Permaculture (Permanent Culture) integrates agriculture, built structures, energy systems, economy, land access and social justice. The thinking stems from the worldview that we are “apart of”, not “apart from” nature. Permaculture inserts humans back into the natural world rather than seeing the need to objectify nature, thus separating ourselves from “it.
Two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, conceived the Permaculture Design concept in 1978. Bill was a university professor and David was a young environmental design student. They asked the question: Why are agriculture, land use and ecology being taught in different departments? Why aren’t they part of the same program? Bill and David hashed out the principles of permaculture over many months after the university expressed very little interest in that question.
I chose the path of permaculture design because I see the brilliance of the curriculum to help us transform our worldview to start seeing the inter-connectivity between all of creation. How does the permaculture design education do this? Permaculture is based in principles that can be applied to any climate, culture, economy and class. It can be applied to urban or rural situations as well as dry lands, tropics and temperate zones. Many indigenous people are turning to permaculture to help them cope with diminishing land access and resources. Permaculture is an Earth-based design system that uses nature’s principles as guidelines to apply to human settlements.
A permaculture designer asks the question: “How does nature do it?” when probing into complex design issues.
Some practical examples of permaculture principles are:
How many functions can you achieve by every element you design into a system? For example you may plant a hedge for privacy on the boundary of your garden. Depending on the plant species you choose, that hedge could provide habitat for wildlife as well as food for people and domesticated animals. These plants could fix nitrogen in the soil; provide mulch, firewood, kindling, building materials, basketry materials etc.
If you decide to build a pond, that pond could function as a fire protection, irrigation, drinking water, aquaculture, recreation, beauty, water for wildlife and habitat for birds and frogs.
Another principle is honoring diversity. This can be diversity in your skill sets and livelihoods, cultural diversity, agricultural and biological diversity as well as diversity of points of view between people.
Yet another principle is how many elements can support a single function. To illustrate this principle I’ll tell a story. I was in Quebec during the ice storm in 1998 that hit the Montreal metropolitan area. About 1000 steel electrical pylons (said, in Quebec to be the most solid in the world) and 35,000 wooden utility poles were crushed and crumpled by the weight of the ice. More than 4 million people were out of power for a week in the middle of winter where the average temperature was 10 degrees below zero. Having such an important function, energy for heating and cooking, be reliant upon one centralized and single-stranded energy system is a recipe for instability. The solution would be to have a variety of energy options with multiple grids. Given the losses to structures, people and animals it would have been more cost effective in the long run to design for such a catastrophe. The potential for an ice storm is not unlikely in a climate like Quebec, Ontario and the Northeastern US. They may become more common given the growing extremes in climate conditions.
True Cost Pricing
If we looked at the real bottom line based on true cost pricing, did a thorough life cycle analysis, factoring in all the energy and impact that goes into a product or a system, (like the fossil fuels, waste, pollution stream, transport) sustainable practices would prove to be a lot more cost effective than our current unsustainable practices. The efficiency we are enjoying today is taking away from our future generations. We should be using the energy we have now to create resilient and stable holistically-designed human settlements to provide for our supply lines of food, building materials, medicine and energy. We all love our children and want to see them and their children and grandchildren thrive in a healthy world.
If the policy makers, decision makers, developers and citizens can learn to think holistically as they work to achieve what is on their respective agendas, we might have a chance to develop a truly resilient regenerative culture of kindness, support and respect toward all of creation. The solutions are available to us. To find out more, contact Regenerative Design Institute
www.regenerativedesign.org
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer and speaker. With her husband James she founded the Permaculture Institute of Northern California, which grew to become the Regenerative Design Institute.
Ecoliteracy, Systems Thinking, and Smart by Nature Education
By Michael K. Stone
Educating our children for a sustainable world is more than a timely slogan. Many of the challenges we face today have some connection to the natural world: climate change, energy, food and water security, deforestation, and more. Therefore the citizens and leaders of tomorrow need to understand how the natural world works. They must perceive the connections between human activity and nature, and have the values and skills to act effectively on this knowledge. They must understand sustainability at a deep level. In other words, they must be ecoliterate.
The natural world is a living system, and humans are an integral part of that system. To build toward sustainability, therefore, the Center for Ecoliteracy, a nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, exists to support schools in preparing students and the adults who live and work with them to carry that mantle of ecoliterate leadership.
Our framework for this is Smart by Nature™, an approach grounded in the knowledge of living systems and two decades of work with schools and organizations from more than 400 communities across the U.S. and around the world. A systems orientation helps young people apprehend the complex dynamics of the natural world and human society.
Systems thinking also informs our approach to working with schools around pedagogy, organizational practices, and institutional change. The Center understands schools as whole systems and “curriculum” as everything that leads to students’ learning. We recognize that schools teach by classroom lessons, but also by the food served in their dining halls, their use of energy and resources, their decision-making processes, and their relationships with the larger community.
SHIFTS IN PERCEPTION
Systems thinking within the Smart by Nature approach entails several shifts in perception with important implications for teaching and school practices. These shifts are not either/or alternatives, but rather movements along a continuum:
From parts to the whole. In any system, the whole is different from the sum of its parts. By shifting focus from the parts to the whole, schools can help students to better grasp relationships, connectedness, and context. For instance, instead of copying pictures of honeybees from a book, an art teacher takes her class to the school garden to draw bees in their natural setting. This shift can also mean moving from isolated subjects to integrated curricula and from individual class periods to block scheduling.
Similarly, long-lasting institutional change usually occurs at the level of the whole school or the district, one reason that the Center strongly encourages participants in its seminars to enroll as school-wide or district teams.
From objects to relationships. In systems, the relationships between individual parts may be as important as the parts themselves. In the systems view, the “objects” of study are often networks of relationships. Farmer/philosopher Wendell Berry uses the analogy of a healthy organ acting within the body. The organ does not “give” health to the body, but is a part of its health: “The health of organ and organism is the same, just as the health of organism and ecosystem is the same.”
This perspective emphasizes relationship-based processes such as cooperation and consensus. Though it can feel counter-intuitive to action-oriented school reformers, it’s sometimes necessary to spend considerable time cultivating relationships among stakeholders before ever addressing objectives or agendas for change.
From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge. This shift may be facilitated through project-based and place-based learning instead of prescriptive curricula. Whether restoring the habitat of an endangered species, tending a school garden, or designing a neighborhood recycling program, students learn best from active engagement in which their actions matter and have larger meaning than simply completing an assignment.
Students are inspired to learn because they recognize that the knowledge is essential to completing a project that they or people in their community care about. This process also encourages teachers to be facilitators and fellow learners alongside students, rather than experts dispensing knowledge.
From quantity to quality. Western science has often focused on things that can be measure and quantified. It has sometimes been implied that phenomena that can be measured and quantified are more important—and perhaps even that what cannot be measured and quantified doesn’t exist at all.
Some aspects of systems, however, like the relationships in a food web, a school, or a community, cannot be measured. Rather, they must be mapped. In education systems, this shift can lead to efforts to define more comprehensive and more appropriate forms of assessment than standardized tests. Cultivating this perspective also inspires efforts to improve the quality of life in communities while requiring less material consumption or stress on the environment—necessary strategies for sustainable living on a finite planet.
From structure to process. Living systems develop and evolve. Understanding these systems requires a shift in focus from structure to processes such as evolution, renewal, and change, important concepts for understanding ecological principles. In the classroom, this shift can mean teaching students that how they solve a problem is more important than the answer. How decisions are made can be as important as what is decided. When educators, parents, trustees, and other members of the school community make decisions and act collaboratively, the school serves as an apprentice community for acquiring skills and values needed for sustainable living.
From contents to patterns. Within systems, certain configurations appear repeatedly in patterns such as cycles and feedback loops. Understanding how a pattern works in one system helps us to understand other systems that manifest the same pattern. For instance, recognizing how flows of energy affect a natural ecosystem may illuminate how flows of information affect a social system.
As Fritjof Capra has emphasized, the phenomenon of emergence within systems offers clues for facilitating change in institutions such as schools. Leaders need to be able to recognize emergent novelty, articulate it, and incorporate it into the organization’s design. Effecting change sometimes requires that leaders loosen their apparent control and take the risk of dispersing authority and responsibility more widely.
In our experience, a systems perspective is basic to ecological literacy, and hence to schooling for sustainability. To explore in depth the ideas explained in brief here, and to learn more about the Center, see our website (www.ecoliteracy.org) and our publications, especially our recent book Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability (www.ecoliteracy.org/books/smart-nature-schooling-sustainability).
Michael K. Stone is senior editor at the Center for Ecoliteracy and the primary author of Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability (Watershed Media/University of California Press, 2009) and Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (Sierra Club Books, 2005). |
